October 28, 2012

What Type of Navy Does America Need?

Mitt Romney and Barack Obama sure are good at the zingers. During Monday's presidential debate, Romney claimed that today's U.S. Navy is at its smallest size — in terms of the numbers of major ships — in a century. Obama sarcastically retorted that we aren't playing a game of Battleship and that counting ship numbers is a silly way to assess naval capability. Both candidates are basically right as far as they go, but their exchange contributed very little to an understanding of what the Navy of the United States requires today.

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